Objective
We will develop a scalable hardware platform made of custom reconfigurable devices endowed with bio-inspired capabilities that will enable the simulation of large-scale complex systems and the study of emergent complex behaviors in a virtually unbounded wireless network of computing modules.
At the heart of these ubiquitous computing modules (ubidules), we will use a custom reconfigurable electronic device capable of implementing bio-inspired mechanisms such as growth, learning, and evolution. This reconfigurable circuit will be associated to rich sensory elements and wireless communication capabilities. Such an infrastructure will provide several advantages compared to classical software simulations: speed-up, an inherent real-time interaction with the environment, self-organization capabilities, simulation in the presence of uncertainty, and distributed multi-scale simulations.
The strong interaction between our hardware infrastructure and the real environment circumvent the need to simulate the environment and ease the occurrence of unexpected emergent phenomena. The observation of such emergent phenomena will be now facilitated by the shorter simulation time, brought by the hardware speed-up.
One of the major difficulties of a complex system simulation is to define the structural organization of the modules composing the model. The self-organization and bio-inspired capabilities of our platform will bring an innovative solution to this problem: an evolving and hierarchical structure. The function of each ubidule can be dynamically and autonomously determined by the simulation itself: it can be an independent agent or a part of a largest entity.
We have identified three domains where our modelling infrastructure will prove its usefulness as a powerful and innovative simulation tool: biologically-plausible developing neural networks modelling, culture dissemination modelling, and cooperative collective robotics modelling.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputational sciencemultiphysics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applicationssimulation software
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputational intelligence
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
STREP - Specific Targeted Research ProjectCoordinator
1401 YVERDON-LES-BAINS
Switzerland